- NY: Weinstein sentenced to 15 years for 2006 sex assault
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday in another #MeToo reckoning for sexually assaulting a former production assistant in 2006. Weinstein, who was at the center of abuse allegations that spurred the #MeToo movement in Hollywood, was resentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting one-time TV production assistant Miriam Haley. In 2020, Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years for assaulting Haley but his conviction was overturned on appeal in 2024. A jury found him guilty again in 2025 after a retrial in New York.” (09/23/26)
- Venezuela: Regime blocks Machado from entering country three times in 24 hours
Source: CBS News
“Venezuela’s opposition leader, 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Corina Machado, was prevented from returning to the South American country from her exile in Panama, a source from her political party told AFP on Tuesday. Machado is considered a fugitive by the Venezuelan government, which accuses her of calling for military intervention against the country. She has been unable to return to Venezuela since being covertly sneaked out of the country in December by a private U.S. rescue team to accept her Nobel Prize in Norway. ‘During the last 24 hours, María Corina Machado has been denied entry into Venezuela three times,’ the politician’s senior adviser David Smolansky said in a statement shared with CBS News’ Margaret Brennan and other journalists early Wednesday morning.” (09/23/26)
- OH: Billionaire’s political contributions make Epstein files a focus of Senate race
Source: SFGate
“Billionaire Les Wexner has long been a magnet for political campaigns seeking contributions — especially in his native Ohio, where the retail tycoon directed a generous portion of his giving to candidates from both parties. Then came the Epstein files. Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, was Wexner’s former financial adviser. That relationship and Wexner’s history of political donations has figured prominently in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race, which could end up as the most expensive in the country this year. Wexner, who has disavowed his prior association with Epstein, contributed about $116,000 to support Republican Sen. Jon Husted from 2001 to 2025, mostly during the two decades he spent in state politics before being appointed to fill Vice President JD Vance’s seat last year. While that’s just a sliver of Husted’s prolific fundraising, his opponent in this year’s race, former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, is turning it into a campaign cudgel.” (09/23/26)
- ICC convicts former Central African Republic militia commander of torture
Source: ABC News
“Judges at the International Criminal Court on Wednesday convicted rebel commander Mahamat Said Abdel Kani of persecution and torture as crimes against humanity committed while he ran a prison in the Central African Republic. Said, 56, wore jeans and a blue sweater and remained expressionless for most of the hourlong hearing as presiding Judge Miatta Maria Samba described the conditions prisoners endured at the facility in the capital, Bangui. … The charges stemmed from fighting more than a decade ago between the predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels, who had seized power from then-President Francois Bozize, and a mainly Christian militia called the anti-Balaka.” (09/23/26)
- IMF warns UK & US to take action on spiraling debt costs
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF, issued a warning on debt levels at the UN general assembly meeting in New York City. The world’s advanced economies including the UK and US need to cut borrowing and reduce debt levels following weeks of spiraling government interest costs, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned. In an exclusive interview, Kristalina Georgieva said global economic shocks had been ‘pushing debt levels up like a staircase not to heaven’ but that governments had taken ‘no action to contain that service cost’. ‘[It’s] time to take that action,’ she said, adding that ‘courage’ was needed by politicians to take the necessary steps. The intervention comes as government borrowing costs have surged in response to wars disrupting the supply of oil, which has fueled inflation.” (09/23/26)
- Idiot pols introduce bill to ensure that Americans aren’t beneficiaries AI advances
Source: Newsday
“Two leading progressive lawmakers, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar, are unveiling legislation Wednesday that would ban artificial superintelligence and create a federal agency to oversee advanced AI as some of the industry’s own leaders urge Congress to impose guardrails on the advancing technology. The bill, provided first to The Associated Press, would also pause advanced AI development until guidelines are implemented while creating the Department of Artificial Intelligence. Multiple employees at leading AI companies are endorsing the bill. … The legislation would permanently prohibit artificial superintelligence, which it defines as a system that exceeds human cognitive ability or has sufficient capabilities to plan and execute the destruction or disempowerment of humanity.” [editor’s note: I’m shocked — shocked! — that people who would benefit from limiting competition in AI are endorsing a bill that would try to limit competition in AI – TLK] (09/23/26)
https://www.newsday.com/news/nation/ai-superintelligence-bernie-sanders-k74948
- MS: Police make second arrest in death of Tasia Fortune, found hanging from tree, seek 3rd suspect
Source: SFGate
“Police in Mississippi have arrested a second man in the death of a [b]lack woman found hanging from a tree and have issued an arrest warrant for a third suspect. Jackson police said late Tuesday that they arrested 25-year-old Earnest Lloyd Jr. in the death of 29-year-old Tasia Fortune, whose body was found hanging behind an abandoned home in the city on Aug. 3. Like Fortune and the first man arrested, 51-year-old Jarques Ratliff, Lloyd is [b]lack.” [editor’s note: One more brick falls in the wall of claims about “racist lynchings” – SAT] [additional editor’s note: Arrests are not convictions. And falling bricks would explain a lot about whatever goes on in SAT’s head – TLK] (09/23/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/mississippi-police-make-2nd-arrest-in-death-of-22445378.php
- Philippines: Senate Lowers Threshold for Conviction in VP Duterte’s Impeachment Trial
Source: US News & World Report
“The Philippine Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, on Wednesday lowered the number of votes needed to convict Vice President Sara Duterte, reducing the threshold prosecutors must clear to secure a guilty verdict. The court ruled that only senator-judges that are able to participate in the trial should be counted when determining the threshold for conviction. Four of the 24 senator-judges have been unable to participate in the proceedings and cannot vote. The constitution requires a two-thirds vote to convict an impeached official, so the decision means prosecutors now need 14 votes instead of 16 to gain a conviction. The decision could have broader implications if more senator-judges become unable to participate in the proceedings.” (09/23/26)
- Ethiopia and Tigray accuse each of launching offensives, fuelling fears of new war
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Ethiopia’s government and the party in control of the northern region of Tigray have accused each other of launching offensives, escalating fears of a return to full-scale conflict. Getachew Reda, a cabinet minister and adviser to Ethiopia’s prime minister, said Tigrayan fighters had taken control of federally administered airports in Tigray and launched offensives in neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions. Earlier, the Tigrayan authorities said their forces had been forced to enter ‘a defensive war’. The statement followed reports of drone strikes in Tigray. The two-year war in Tigray ended in 2022 – but over recent months both sides have been accusing each other of violating a peace deal. It was one of the most deadly conflicts this century – the African Union’s mediator estimated some 600,000 people died as the fighting drove the region to the precipice of famine.” (09/23/26)
- Former USPS worker indicted for allegedly discarding mail-in ballots
Source: United Press International
“A former U.S. Postal Service worker has been indicted forallegedly throwing away about 300 mail-in ballots earlier this year in Utah. The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed the indictment Tuesday as Damon Matai Seei, 34, of Payson, Utah, appeared for his arraignment at the Orrin G. Hatch U.S. Courthouse in Salt Lake City. Seei was indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday. He faces charges of unlawful secretion, destruction and delay of mail for allegedly throwing the ballots into a dumpster in a church parking lot. Justice Department officials alleged in a detention memo that Seei said in an interview that he threw away the ballots and other mail on June 3 to ‘lighten his workload.'” (09/22/26)
- UN: Pezeshkian calls out Trump and says country will fight “until our last breath”
Source: SFGate
“Iran’s president said Wednesday that his people have been ‘victims of terrorism’ by the United States, delivering a rare wartime speech at U.N. General Assembly a day after President Donald Trump said he ‘may annihilate’ the Islamic Republic if a deal isn’t reached soon to end the nearly seven-month war. The defiant speech by President Masoud Pezeshkian marked a striking instance of a foreign leader addressing the world body while their country is at war with the host nation. … ‘We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists,’ Pezeshkian said at the General Assembly. ‘Our innocent people have been the targets of cowardly attacks and aggressions imposed upon our country. And we defended ourselves with utmost strength. America and Israel attacked us.’ He added of the United States: ‘Yes they did hit us, but we did not bend the knee.'” (09/23/26)
- Trio spotted emerging from manhole just steps from NYC hotel where Netanyahu set to stay
Source: New York Post
“A shady trio was spotted emerging from a manhole just steps from the hotel where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to stay during the United Nations General Assembly, cops and sources said. The three unidentified men were spotted around 4:35 a.m. climbing out of the underground pit on Park Avenue near East 61st Street on the Upper East Side, authorities said. They fled in two separate vehicles that headed north on Park Avenue, police said. Netanyahu and other dignitaries are expected to stay at the Loews Regency New York down the block, sources said. It was not immediately clear whether the sewer incident is linked to his stay.” (09/23/26)
- South Sudan: Kiir dissolves government ahead of first national elections
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has dissolved the country’s transitional unity government and appointed a caretaker administration as the country prepares for its first-ever national elections. The decree on Tuesday ended a power-sharing arrangement set up under a 2018 peace deal that halted years of civil war, and raised concerns that Kiir could now wield unchecked power. /// The decree came a day after the parliament approved changes to the National Elections Act that allowed Kiir to stay in power during the election period, while removing all vice presidents, who were appointed under the 2018 peace deal. The changes mean that South Sudan can move towards elections scheduled for December 22, without first completing a permanent constitution or census – two processes that were previously tied to the transition.” (09/23/26)
- Iranian regime offers to reopen Strait of Hormuz if US regime ends blockade
Source: New York Post
“Iran has offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a seven-day period if the US agrees to end its blockade and military pressure campaign, according to a report. The pitch was conveyed to US officials last week as both sides explored whether they can revive peace talks as their leaders converge on New York City for the United Nations General Assembly, Reuters said. … US officials have insisted that despite Iran’s efforts, they are getting oil through the Strait of Hormuz by using routes close to the shores of Oman, with Central Command claiming last week to have gotten 1 billion barrels through within the past several months. But passage through routes close to Iran’s shores has been seen as perilous because of concerns about mines and the theocratic regime carrying out drone attacks on the oil vessels.” (09/22/26)
- In Court Filing Defending Media Ban, White House Says Access Is a “Privilege”
Source: New York Times
“White House officials said in a court filing Tuesday that President Trump had determined that CNN, MS NOW and Politico had breached standards of conduct, leading to their expulsion from the grounds of the White House. The alleged violations, said the filing, include ‘trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues, and publishing sensitive or classified information.’ ‘Access to the White House is a privilege — not a right,’ reads the filing, which argues that Mr. Trump’s action against the three news outlets does not violate the First Amendment and aligns with a long history of presidents favoring some journalists over others. The filing, furthermore, claims that the White House’s denial of access is a preliminary matter and that the outlets have until Friday to contest the decision.” (09/23/26)
- Ukraine: Russian attacks injure seven
Source: News 10 ABC
“Russia launched strikes at businesses and storage facilities in Ukraine overnight, injuring seven people across the country, according to local authorities. The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that its forces overnight carried out ‘group strikes’ using drones on Ukraine’s ‘military-industrial and energy sector facilities, logistics centers and maritime vessels.’ In Kyiv and the surrounding region, a storage facility and an industrial facility used for storing and making drones were hit, the ministry said.” (09/23/26)
https://www.news10.com/news/ap-russian-attacks-injure-7-across-ukraine-and-damage-structures/
- ShinyHunters hackers say they breached FBI
Source: CNBC
“The digital extortion group known as ‘ShinyHunters’ said on Tuesday that it had breached the Federal Bureau of Investigation and stolen [sic] data on a huge number of current and former FBI employees. The bureau did not respond to repeated messages seeking comment on Tuesday. In a statement posted to its dark-web site and during an online chat with Reuters, ShinyHunters said it had targeted the FBI in response to a May 2026 agency announcement that detailed ShinyHunters’ methods and advised targets not to pay. It said it had stolen [sic] data ‘on almost ALL FBI Agents, and individuals who filed an application with the FBI for a job.’” (09/22/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/22/shinyhunters-hack-fbi-stole-data.html
- US regime to build two military bases in Greenland under new deal with Danish regime
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“The US, Denmark and Greenland have signed a defence deal that allows Washington to build two new military bases in the Arctic territory, while reaffirming Copenhagen’s sovereignty over it. Before a signing ceremony at the UN General Assembly in New York, US President Donald Trump said ‘we will immediately begin the process of developing a large military presence in the appropriate locations’. … The deal amends and updates a 1951 defence agreement between Denmark and the US.” (09/22/26)
- Senile reality TV actor yells at UN
Source: KOMO News
“President Donald Trump used his address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Tuesday to defend the nearly seven-month U.S. war with Iran, claim Tehran’s regional power has been broken, and raise the prospect of either a negotiated agreement or further escalation. … Trump also claimed credit for settling eight conflicts. … He listed Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, Pakistan and India, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the war in Gaza, which he said included the return of all hostages. Trump also said the U.S. had reached an agreement with Denmark and Greenland that would expand America’s Arctic security role.” (09/22/260
- Clancy’s attorney continues weird war on trial by jury
Source: United Press International
“The lawyer for Lindsay Clancy, who was charged in the deaths of her three children, has asked the judge in the case to investigate the holdout juror, Michael P. Desronvil, who refused to acquit Clancy, which led to a mistrial. The lawyer, Kevin Reddington, submitted the request Friday to Judge William Sullivan to get the juror’s mobile phone metadata from when he was deliberating the case. It also requests the court preserve the original questionnaires, jury notes and the court’s responses. … Also on Monday, Reddington and co-counsel Martin Weinberg filed a motion to dismiss the case against Clancy on double jeopardy grounds. They argued that the circumstances of the trial prevent the prosecution from trying her again.” (09/22/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/09/22/lindsay-clancy-holdout-juror-motion/7401790087713/
- Banning Diesel Exports Is Bad Policy
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye“The proposal offers vulnerable Republicans an immediate and visible response to an economic problem. It would let lawmakers say American fuel is being reserved for American consumers. That, though, ain’t the end of it. The United States would be trying to lower domestic prices by removing supply from an already undersupplied global market while interfering with the export business that helps keep American refineries operating near capacity.” (09/23/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/banning-diesel-exports-is-bad-policy
- A Bankrupt America Can’t Defend the World
Source: The Daily Economy
by Doug Bandow“As interest costs consume an ever-larger share of the federal budget, maintaining an informal global empire becomes fiscally and strategically indefensible.” (09/23/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/a-bankrupt-america-cant-defend-the-world/
- A Scheme to Pack and Unpack the Supreme Court Will Backfire Badly
Source: The UnPopulist
by Gregg Nunziata“Judicial independence is a hard-won but easily lost feature of liberal democracy. As we’ve seen in Europe, Latin America, and elsewhere, aspiring autocrats prioritize delegitimizing, intimidating, and weakening the judiciary. Court packing would, inescapably, have this effect, which is why a Democratic Congress rejected Franklin Roosevelt’s court-packing proposal, calling it a ‘direct violation of the spirit of the American Constitution.’ As in medicine, the operating motto for any intervention in statecraft is: first, do no harm.” (09/’23/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/a-scheme-to-pack-and-unpack-the-supreme
- We May Never Know Who Bought the 2026 Midterms
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman“Political consultants warn Democratic candidates not to talk about regulating artificial intelligence, Politico reported this week. Not because that would be unpopular—it would be very popular!. No, the consultants warned, it’s that outspoken candidates could be demolished by millions of dollars suddenly dumped into their races by tech companies. This critical 2026 midterm election may be decided by dark money, big money, tech money. Above all, secret money. The money storm is now gathering. It could tip the outcome of many races. And we may never really know what happened. (09/23/26)
- The Great Repricing of the College Degree
Source: The Daily Economy
by Joakim Book“The college wage premium remains substantial, but has declined sharply since 2022. Generative AI may be part of the explanation, but it is not the whole story.” (09/23/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-great-repricing-of-the-college-degree/
- Conservatism’s Faultline
Source: Law & Liberty
by Mitchell Bahnsen & John Shelton“Critics of liberalism have identified serious problems, but they cannot be solved by abandoning our constitutional principles.” (09/23/26)
- Contrasting philosophies
Source: Adam Smith Instiute
by Madsen Pirie“Socialism starts with a picture. Somewhere in the mind of the socialist there sits a finished society that is harmonious, planned, and fair by design. The task, as they see it, is to build toward that picture and hold reality to its measurements. Everything that resists the plan is treated as a defect to be corrected, not as evidence that the plan might be wrong. Neither Conservatism nor market liberalism work that way. Neither of them starts with a picture of the finished society. They start with what has actually happened, and they ask what it can teach.” (09/23/26)
- Trump’s Banishment of Disfavored News Outlets Reflects His Contempt for Freedom of the Press
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum“The president has a long history of retaliating against journalists who offend him.” (09/23/26)
- New Mexico’s “Free” Childcare Program Is Another Costly Disaster
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Paul Gessing“National media outlets which rarely report on any news from New Mexico were eager to report on the big news this past November that the Land of Enchantment had become the first state to have a ‘free’ universal childcare program. Other states may head down the same path, but before they do they need to know exactly what was done in New Mexico, why so many other similar programs created in New Mexico have failed over the years, and what unique circumstances have enabled the state’s politicians to create a massive new entitlement program without legislative approval. Many progressives see these programs as a way to help the urban poor in particular, but they often crowd out private alternatives and leave lower-income residents with fewer childcare options.” (09/23/26)
https://fee.org/articles/new-mexicos-free-childcare-program-is-another-costly-disaster/
- The Democrat Plan to Redistribute Wealth to the Wealthier
Source: Town Hall
by Terry Jeffrey“Two hypothetical college graduates who are married now have a combined annual income of $240,000; they each earn $120,000 per year. Should an American who graduated from high school but never went to college — and who now works as a delivery truck driver, earning $43,950 per year (the median annual earnings for that job) — be forced to help pay off the federal student loans of these two college graduates who make $240,000? If former President Joe Biden had gotten his way, that truck driver and other hardworking American taxpayers would indeed have seen their tax dollars help pay off those loans. When Biden was running for president in April 2020, he announced his plan for ‘forgiving student debt’.” (09/23/26)
- The Commodified Self and the Designed Collapse of Generation Z
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Renaud Beauchard“Since Covid, the ‘mental health crisis’ has gone from background music to a deafening noise. It is said to touch every part of society, but none more than Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2013. The French figures give the scale: compared with the previous decade, psychiatric hospitalizations in 2021–2022 rose 106 percent among 20-to-24-year-olds, 163 percent among 15-to-19-year-olds, and a staggering 246 percent among children aged 10 to 14. Researchers spent a decade arguing over datasets. Parents look for a single culprit they can blame or a device they can confiscate. Having exhausted the managerial and therapeutic answers of more awareness, more services, more medication, and more self-expression they offer for every modern sorrow, institutions are now itching for the stick of social networks age verification, or for AI fear porn. Two excellent books written by two Generation Z authors and published this year refuse the usual explanations and their lazy remedies.” (09/23/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-commodified-self-and-the-designed-collapse-of-generation-z/
- Trump is backing a diesel export ban. How much would that do?
Source: Grist
by Tik Root“The U.S. ships millions of barrels of diesel fuel overseas each day, even as Americans face unprecedented prices at home.” (09/23/26)
https://grist.org/transportation/trump-is-backing-a-diesel-export-ban-how-much-would-that-do/
- Federal Health Care Subsidies Are Devouring the Budget and Killing Patient Satisfaction
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille“Getting government involved in any area of human life is an effective way to guarantee you spend gobs of money without improving the situation or making people especially happy. That’s clearly true of health care, a field in which government has increasingly intruded for years even as dissatisfaction becomes the norm and costs go through the roof. A recent report finds that health care now consumes almost one of every three dollars the federal government spends, with more to come.” (09/23/26)
- As Gas Prices Soar, Congress Goes Home
Source: Antiwar.com
by Dennis Kucinich“On September 15, the House of Representatives expressed its constitutional will and voted 220–204 to direct the President to end American participation in the war against Iran. This constitutional crisis extends beyond one resolution or one cabinet secretary. The House exists as an independent branch of government, with its own authority over war, appropriations and impeachment. The Speaker, by preventing a recorded vote on the Hegseth Impeachment and sending members home, prevented the House from exercising one of its most consequential checks on executive power. The practical effect was to protect the Administration from an immediate confrontation with a chamber that had voted to end the war.” (09/23/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/kucinich/2026/09/22/as-gas-prices-soar-congress-goes-home/
- AI Safety Needs More Evidence and Less Fruitcake Speculation
Source: The American Prospect
by Ryan Cooper“A lot of rich and influential people have suddenly become very worried about artificial intelligence models’ danger to humanity, thanks to several recent episodes in which various AI ‘agents’ carried out hacks of other websites and systems. OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, and xAI’s Elon Musk all now agree that the government needs to help them set up a cartel in violation of antitrust law—er, I mean, ‘pace the frontier’. Yet for odd reasons, the ‘AI safety’ discussion has been focused almost entirely on rather weird-sounding future scenarios. Will artificial intelligence models unleash an economic or social cataclysm? Or cause the extinction of the human race? Or destroy all life on Earth? Or even turn all the matter on the planet into paper clips? Or all the matter in the galaxy? The universe?” (09/23/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/09/23/ai-safety-needs-more-evidence-less-fruitcake-speculation/
- At Turtle Bay, Trump Sinks Under His Own Weight
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson“Of course, it is embarrassing for Americans to be represented by such a man as Trump: ignorant, rage-addled, smeared in make-up applied with an artistry that falls somewhere between clown and hooker along with an evolving assortment of hair dyes, doddering, bloated. It is tempting to treat a pathetic figure such as Trump the way Trump would treat such a figure. But what afflicts Trump more than whatever causes his ankle swelling is a curse that might be best understood as a form of moral obesity …. Trump is a man who seems to have suffered the spiritual equivalent of an ischemic stroke when he was about 27 and never to have recovered the full use of his faculties.” (09/23/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/donald-trump-united-nations-iran-midterms/
- Banning US diesel exports will likely backfire on Americans
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Karthik Sankaran“Sen. Chuck Grassley has endorsed a moratorium thinking it will provide more fuel the states, particularly famers. Not so fast, say experts.” (09/23/26)
- Trump to World: ‘To the Victor Belong the Spoils’
Source: The Americn Conservatives
by Jude Russo“he UN is, if not quite a punchline, at least not an institution with oodles of heft in 2026. Maybe it never was, really; as far as preventing international conflict goes, it was broken to begin with. At the same time, the leader of the free world showing up to the body’s annual General Assembly and going on one about the various wars he has started without so much as a how-do-you-do to the international community is a fresh strain. Most of President Donald Trump’s Tuesday address to the congregation was devoted to self-congratulation about American aggression.” (09/23/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-to-world-to-the-victor-belong-the-spoils/
- Thoughts on weapons and disarmament
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton“George Takei (Star Trek Original Series actor, well-known flaming liberal/Woke celebrity) recently pointed out that there are some 15 million AR15s in the US, and that if every one of them were shipped off to Ukraine and given to their citizens, they could easily defeat the Russian invasion. You know what, my friend? I completely agree with him. Do you? Good. Ironically, he just proved the entire point of the 2nd Amendment.” (09/22/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/09/22/thoughts-on-weapons-and-disarmament/
- Are We Once Again Overestimating an Authoritarian Superpower?
Source: American Greatness
by Sasha Gong“Xi Jinping is preparing to visit the United States. Washington will focus on artificial intelligence, tariffs, rare earths, supply chains, and trade. Behind these discussions lies a common assumption: China is still rising—a disciplined superpower capable of challenging America for decades. That may be true. But Washington may also be repeating the mistake the West made with the Soviet Union. After the Soviet collapse, briefly opened archives allowed Western intelligence officials to reassess decades of analysis. Richard Kerr, a former deputy director of the CIA, offered an ironic summary: ‘We tried to find out what the Soviet leaders knew. Finally, we found out that they did not know much. They didn’t even know that their country would soon collapse.'” (09/23/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/09/23/are-we-once-again-overestimating-an-authoritarian-superpower/
- Mysteries Of AI Generalization
Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander“In 2025, Owain Evans et al published a paper on ’emergent misalignment’. They trained a previously-aligned AI to do one immoral thing: write insecure code full of vulnerabilities and backdoors. To their surprise, the AI became immoral in general. Its advice to a bored user was to try taking random expired medications and see what happened. Its money-making tips all involved theft and violence. When asked for its favorite historic figure, it chose Hitler. … This sounds bad, in that random things can turn AIs evil or sexist. But some people in AI safety (including Eliezer Yudkowsky) speculated that in fact it was very, very good.” (09/22/26)
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/mysteries-of-ai-generalization
- Cape Girardeau County Has Voted No on Zoning Twice
Source: Show-Me Institute
by Patrick Tuohey“Cape Girardeau County is the only first-class, non-charter county in Missouri without countywide planning and zoning. That fact, reported recently by Rick Fahr in the Southeast Missourian, is often cast as a deficiency waiting to be corrected. It shouldn’t be. It’s the result of voters being asked directly, more than once, and saying no both times.” (09/22/26)
https://showmeinstitute.org/article/economy/cape-girardeau-county-has-voted-no-on-zoning-twice/
- The autocrats may seem immovable. But their time is passing.
Source: Washington Post
by David Ignatius“We seem to be living in the age of the autocrats, where Presidents Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin bestride the globe. The gathering this week of the U.N. General Assembly in New York seems a mere sideshow to the real power game at the Trump-Xi summit. But appearances can be deceptive: This may be the twilight of the dictators’ era, not the dawn.” (09/22/26)
- If You Want to Win Working-Class Votes, Run On Working-Class Issues
Source: In These Times
by Mindy Isser“If the Left is serious about winning elections across the country, working-class voters must be at the center of this project. And yet, too many campaigns don’t make these voters’ priorities their focus. In a new report from The Center for Working Class Politics (where I am a research associate), scholars Joan Williams and Jared Abbot analyze the results of a recent Class Gaps Poll, which compares the political attitudes of working-class people with those of liberal upper-middle-class voters, who, like it or not, have steered the modern progressive movement and its agenda.” (09/22/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/working-class-politics-left-election-midterms-college
- The President’s Ban on Journalists Is Disgraceful and Illegal
Source: Cato Institute
by Dan Greenberg“The reasons the Trump White House has given in the past for its attempts to pick and choose which journalists are allowed to cover it have varied, but all of them have one thing in common: they cannot be reconciled with the law. Jim Acosta’s press pass was revoked because he continued to ask questions and refused to yield his microphone to another journalist. Brian Karem’s press pass was revoked essentially because he made remarks that were understood as rude and confrontational. The Associated Press was excluded because it used the label ‘Gulf of Mexico,’ rather than ‘Gulf of America.’ But these justifications for exclusion—like the more recent White House complaints about negative news coverage—fail, because they are empty and unworkable under the law.” (09/22/26)
https://www.cato.org/blog/presidents-ban-journalists-disgraceful-illegal
- Trump’s tariffs are a political loser
Source: Washington Post
by Scott Lincicome“In their words and deeds, American politicians of both parties have confirmed what the polls show: Trump’s ‘populist’ tariffs are historically unpopular. Several lessons emerge. First, after winning on an affordability message in 2024, Trump’s early-term decision to repeatedly embrace a policy that, in both design and result, raises domestic prices was an epic political blunder. Voters now widely distrust Republicans’ handling of the economy. And defending tariffs by deriding inflation-weary Americans’ desire to have cheap and abundant goods added literal insult to injury. Second, voters’ hostility toward tariffs today reflects an important policy reality: Things that might sound good in a theoretical vacuum are often rejected when their real and predictable trade-offs become apparent.” (09/22/26)
- When Everything Becomes a National Security Threat
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead“Given the judiciary’s longstanding reluctance to second-guess presidential power grabs involving national security, the national-security state has repeatedly used that deference to expand both its own reach and the power of the presidency. Call something a matter of national security and the normal rules start disappearing: Courts defer. Congress retreats. Secrecy expands. Executive power grows. ‘National security’ has been used as the justification for surveillance, secret courts, classification, warrantless spying, military intervention, watchlists, detention, border searches, censorship claims and the concealment of government misconduct. That game is hardly new. Nixon played it. Bush played it. Obama played it. Biden played it. Trump may not have invented the national-security dodge, but he has taken it to increasingly absurd extremes.” (09/22/26)
- Trump to MBS: We’re Not Your Yemen Yes-Men This Time
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“If Iran’s near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz is a knife to international oil shipping’s throat, Houthi control of the Bab el-Mandeb is a firm grip on international oil shipping’s testicles. US president Donald Trump, it seems, would rather the Houthis didn’t squeeze. Or maybe he’s just trying to conserve limited military resources for continued war with Iran. Either way, when Saudi terror kingpin … er, Crown Prince … Mohammed bin Salman requested a new round of US airstrikes, the answer was ‘no, not this time.’ And either way, that’s the right answer.” (09/22/26)
- Huey Long’s Populism Is Back In Fashion
Source: The Daily Economy
by Marcus M Witcher“JD Vance’s admiration for Huey Long reveals how readily today’s populist right embraces the high spending and economic control it once condemned on the left.” (09/22/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/huey-longs-populism-is-back-in-fashion/
- No, Banning Diesel Exports Won’t Lower Gas Prices
Source: Reason
by Eric Boehm“It is one of those bad ideas that seem compelling at first: If you’re running low on an essential item, why sell what little you have? And few items are more essential to a modern economy than diesel fuel. It powers trucks, trains, and boats, all of which are vital to moving goods from place to place. As diesel gets more expensive—it has never been more expensive than it is right now, in nominal terms—everything that must travel via truck, train, or boat gets more expensive too. This is no fun for anyone. Some Republicans think they have hit upon an easy solution: stop exporting diesel. … So far, the White House has not taken action. That’s good. Despite how it might seem, a ban on diesel exports would likely worsen an already bad situation by driving diesel prices higher.” (09/22/26)
https://reason.com/2026/09/22/no-banning-diesel-exports-wont-lower-gas-prices/
- The ugly truth about Gaza reporting that most media ignore
Source: New York Post
by staff“A bombshell interview with acclaimed Palestinian journalist Motaz Azaiza shows why you can’t trust almost any reporting on Hamas, Israel’s war in Gaza, or the basic facts of life under the terror group. Azaiza has been feted by topline news outlets from CNN to CBS to The Guardian, named GQ’s 2023 Middle East Man of the Year, and cheered by the likes of YouTube sensation Ms. Rachel, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). But in an hours-long taped interview, he’s now opted to tell truths he’d been hiding. He admits that he suppressed videos of Palestinian war crimes against Israeli hostages: During Hamas’ triumphal march of its kidnapees, ‘people got out, watched, beat them, hit them, and I followed them and filmed. But I did not publish those videos.’ He met with then-Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh but asked that all evidence of it be deleted.” (09/22/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/09/22/opinion/the-ugly-truth-about-gaza-reporting-that-most-media-ignore/
- The K-Shaped Economy Is Not in Your Imagination
Source: Cobden Centre
by Michael Matulef“Open the financial pages and a strange creature stares back at you. The S&P 500 has climbed over 90 percent in three years. The top 10 percent of earners now account for nearly half of all consumer spending. Moody’s, Morgan Stanley, and the New York Fed agree on the shape of the thing: the economy has split in two. Asset-holders ride the upper arm of the ‘K’ upward while wage earners slide down the lower one, watching groceries, rent, and insurance devour paychecks that no longer stretch. The commentators have responded the way they respond to everything: with a label. Call it ‘K-shaped’ often enough in the news and the naming starts to feel like an explanation. It is not. … The label tells us what is happening. It tells us nothing about why.” (09/22/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/09/the-k-shaped-economy-is-not-in-your-imagination/
- Immigration Controls Destroy American Liberty and Privacy
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“It’s tempting to convince oneself that America’s system of immigration controls adversely affects only foreigners. Not so. It also destroys the rights and freedoms of the American people, including economic liberty, freedom of association, liberty of contract, privacy, and private ownership of property. Moreover, at the risk of belaboring the obvious, a brutal nationwide police state, including massive surveillance, is the opposite of a free society.” (09/22/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/09/22/immigration-controls-destroy-american-liberty-and-privacy/
- A welcome thaw in an icy Arctic issue
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“The United States, Denmark, and the semiautonomous Danish territory of Greenland are poised to sign a new deal on the Arctic island’s future. In an announcement on Friday, President Donald Trump lauded the step as ‘a dream come true for the United States of America’. The response from other leaders has been low-key, but positive, with an apparent consensus that it’s time to move on from the instability caused by U.S. threats of a forcible takeover of Greenland. In addition, this development shows that behind-the-scenes diplomacy can still be effective, even in an atmosphere of decreasing trust among allies. ‘A win for quiet professionalism’ that has also made the Arctic ‘a safer place for America and its allies’, is how The Economist describes this news.” (09/21/26)
- The Neo-Median Voter Model
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan“The Median Voter Model says that democratic competition impels politicians to offer whatever policies maximally satisfy the median voter. Actual democracies have never met its highly restrictive assumptions: There is more than one election, fought over more than one issue, and in any case, nothing forces politicians to fulfill their campaign promises. Yet for decades, this Median Voter Model has been extremely useful — much more useful than these restrictive assumptions would have you believe. … But U.S. politics has grown so weird during the last decade that I suspect a revision to the Median Voter Model is in order. I dub this the Neo-Median Voter Model. It works roughly like this …” (09/22/26)
- Reason Interview: Anthony Scaramucci
Source: Reason
‘Anthony Scaramucci discusses how China’s rise, the War on Terror, and the 2008 financial crisis fueled populist anger.” (09/23/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/09/23/anthony-scaramucci-how-america-got-trump/
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent
Source: The New Republic
“As GOP panic intensifies over Trump’s cratering numbers, a veteran Democratic strategist in North Carolina explains why Trump is so toxic among independents—and why he’s plummeting in red areas too.” (09/23/26)
- The Political Orphanage, 09/23/26
Source: The Political Orphanage
‘Why Childcare Will Always Be Expensive.” (09/23/26)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/why-childcare-will-always-be-expensive
- The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 09/23/26
Source: The Dispatch
“‘This Is Western Civilization, Bro’ | Interview: Stephanie Slade.” (09/23/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/this-is-western-civilization-bro-interview-stephanie-slade/
- The Good Fight, 09/23/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Shashank Joshi on Why Russia Won’t Invade NATO—Yet.” (09/23/26)
- The Kyle Anzalone Show, 09/22/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Impeachment, Empty Arsenals and a War Without End.” (09/22/26)
- Nonzero, 09/22/26
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Superintelligence, the Singularity, and the Singleton | Robert Wright & Nick Bostrom.” (09/22/26)
- Make It Make Sense, 09/22/26
Source: Washington Post
“Jared Polis: Why school choice is a no brainer.” (09/22/26)
- Cato Weekly Podcast, 09/22/26
Source: Cato Institute
“How Hard Is It to Rig an American Election?” (09/22/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-weekly-podcast/how-hard-it-rig-american-election
- Capital Record, episode 323
Source: National Review
“No One is a Libertarian Now.” (09/22/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/no-one-is-a-libertarian-now/
- So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, episode 283
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
“Robby Soave on Trump’s press ban, Macklemore, and free speech culture wars.” (09/22/26)
- The Fifth Column, episode 576
Source: The Fifth Column
“CNN senior contributor and Republican strategist Scott Jennings joins to defend Trump, explain the new GOP, and litigate tariffs, Greenland, Tucker, Mitch McConnell, and the indignities of cable news.” (09/22/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/the-loyal-republican-w-scott-jennings
- Charles Goyette on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Charles Goyette returns to the show to talk about the terrible, unsustainable and outright destructive economic situation the US government has gotten us in and the many ways the Trump administration is making everything even worse.” (09/22/26)
- TAC Right Now, 09/22/26
Source: The American Conservative
“Andrew Day and Luke Nicastro talk to regular contributor Eldar Mamedov about his conversations with Iranian officials, the Saudi-Houthi war, and why Europe is on the diplomatic sidelines.” (09/22/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 09/22/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Dark Clouds Hover Over Republican November Senate Hopes.” (09/22/26)
- Is all this AI doomsaying distracting us from the real threat?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
“Our hosts try to understand why Artificial Intel CEOs are so eager to push the ‘end of humanity’ narrative.” (09/22/26)
- How Will History Remember Anthony Fauci?
Source: Reason
“Fauci’s diary reveals a self-obsessed career bureaucrat who refused to consider the possibility that his research contributed to origin of COVID-19.” (09/22/26)
https://reason.com/video/2026/09/22/how-will-history-remember-anthony-fauci/
- Trump Watch, 09/22/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Destroying Iran and Maintaining Socialist Tyranny in Venezuela.” (09/22/26)
- Show-Me Institute Podcast, 09/22/26
Source: Show-Me Institute
“American Civics Education Tests Trivia, Not Understanding with Brian Kisida.” (09/22/26)
- Politico Playbook Audio Briefing, 09/22/26
Source: Politico
“The GOP senator breaking with Trump on vaccines and AI (with Sen. Bill Cassidy).” (09/22/26)